Rachel E Heberling's Transmissions Through the Ether:
An artist's blog about beloved obsolescence

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Studio Visits

I am still here and processing an in-depth studio visit from a few days ago. It was amazing to have a new perspective from a faculty member outside my department. Not that that hasn't happened before, but not terribly recently. Visits often centered around "don't do printmaking- don't do all these assignments-think of other means and processes that are relevant to the message you wish to get across." I always thought, however, that printmaking was the perfect medium for my ideas, and I had all my reasons lined up and in a row, so that comment would always ruffle my feathers. I felt it would be some sort of awful betrayal to put it away for a while, especially while I am in school and have access to equipment. That's part of the preciousness of it- I know time is short for taking advantage of press access at any hour.

At this time, though, I think I might actually be moving away and into other forms of expression, such as object, performance, and video... at least in addition to printmaking and drawing.

Some things that were said during my visit:

You really have to think about your process: everything is in fragments. How do you make them fragments? Will you put them together and take them apart?

How do we physically wear these narratives that we are a part of?

You need to revisit the typewriter piece (I was walking outside in various settings and typing on my rigged-up and wearable old Smith Corona). This really embodies a simultaneous existence in a different time while still being in the present, and feeling out of place. You are slowing things down. It's about slower time. (I stated that it's about tactility as well and the narrowing line between man and machine. Should I go back to making that evident?)

In the video- you are putting yourself in it: between film and video and the actual performance and drawing. Maybe all of that should come together.

Is drawing important to you? What about the original photos? Perhaps combine/transition between the drawing and the original source material?

What about videotaping a walk through one of these spaces?

It’s interesting that you walk around in these places without knowing all of the history- that’s a part of it.

What is the feeling you are trying to get at? What is that space? (I said- abandoned ghost town, still trying to feel something palpable where history is evident. A deep sigh, a heaviness.)

These are all the thoughts still bouncing around. I also just saw a video where the artist traced a moving landscape video as it was being projected- a sort of attempt to capture the images as they moved- simply with a pencil and smartly showing the act of tracing. I think this is a good possibility for combining the renderings and original source material.

Here is my short video, and basic animation that I created over the summer: